Identification of a biological sample using DNA profiles is an important task in forensic science. For example, a disaster caused by the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 placed huge demands on forensic scientists to identify human remains from the collapsed World Trade Center buildings. Airplane crashes and natural disasters such as weather or earthquake related disasters are further examples of a need for forensic identification. Also, crime and accident scenes may require forensic identification of victims or perpetrators of a crime, for example, a suicide bomber terrorist or the terrorist's victims. In light of these demands, forensic scientists need more efficient and more accurate search methods to assist in identifying biological specimens by using DNA typing technologies to obtain DNA profile data.
Ideally, a forensic scientist obtains a DNA profile from a sample obtained from a personal effect of a missing person such as a toothbrush, razor, or comb, and searches for a match in a database containing DNA profiles from unknown biological specimens of a missing person or victim's remains. In theory, this approach can identify the missing person, but in practice, this approach breaks down when it encounters samples with partial profiles or when the reference origin of the personal effect cannot be obtained or verified. It is common to obtain incomplete DNA profiles from, for example, disaster areas due to harsh environmental conditions where the DNA integrity has diminished. This has forced forensic scientists to lower the match stringencies within database search engines, yielding potentially numerous false positives. In addition, incorrectly labeled personal effects can lead to inaccurate identifications. Biological specimens or forensic evidence of or associated with individuals may be subjected to additional analysis, for example, fingerprint analysis, iris scanning, biometric data collection, spectral data collection, microbody assemblage data collection and image collection in addition to DNA data collection which may provide individual identification or predict an individual's identity or predict properties of the individual or objects associated with the individual according to the principles set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 9,235,733 issued Jan. 12, 2016 (biometrics) and U.S. Pat. No. 8,392,418 issued Mar. 5, 2015 (predicting object properties).
When direct searching fails, identification using kinship analysis is often necessary. Kinship analysis comprises possibly narrowing the scope of a search by using any available DNA or non-DNA information to exclude unrelated specimens and then calculating genetic relatedness to at least one biological relative of a missing person or crime perpetrator. For example, the technology used for kinship analysis after the World Trade Center disaster of Sep. 11, 2001, relied on pair-wise comparison of a test DNA profile from an unknown biological specimen to a target DNA profile from a known biological relative, taking into account various familial relationships such as parent-child, sibling or half-sibling, and calculating the value of a function that indicates the likelihood or probability that the relationship is true (e.g., Cash et al., genecodesforensics.com/news/CashHoyleSutton.pdf, 2003). A likelihood ratio is commonly used, which indicates the likelihood that the given DNA profiles of the two samples would be obtained if they are related, relative to the likelihood or probability that these DNA profiles would be present if the individuals were unrelated. A measure of genetic similarity can also be used to indicate the likelihood that a relationship is true, such as the number of shared or matching alleles or a F.B.I. Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS) low-stringency match. Such a measure can, for example, account for shared DNA alleles, loss of genetic information through degradation of the DNA, or the possibility of mutation of an allele. For any of these functions, the specimens are then independently sorted according to the function's value. When a likelihood function, such as probability, likelihood, or likelihood ratio is used, the specimens are sorted according to the calculated likelihood function value that assesses the likelihood that the DNA profile from an unknown biological specimen is related to the DNA profile from a biological relative. Unfortunately, this approach is cumbersome and imprecise for large cases, such as the World Trade Center disaster, because each search is for a specimen which is related to a single family member. A pair-wise comparison to the DNA profile of a single known relative can produce a large collection of candidate profiles. Multiple pair-wise comparisons can be performed and combined, but their combination does not always exclude genetically infeasible combinations of victim and family pedigree relationships. Human analysts must then sort, correlate, and analyze the matches, possibly manually with available DNA or meta data, which is a very labor intensive and time consuming process.
Software tools exist which allow the correlation of DNA match results from a single type of DNA profile, such as short tandem repeat (STR) profile, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profile, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) profile, Y-STR DNA profile, and a mass spectrometry profile among others. Technologies can use all available DNA profile information involving a missing individual or an unknown biological specimen and his/her relatives to further enhance the ability to make an accurate identification.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,271,201 issued Sep. 18, 2012, of present inventor Dr. J. Douglas Birdwell et al., and corresponding to priority application U.S. Ser. No. 11/467,834 filed Aug. 28, 2006, (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,271,201 issued Sep. 18, 2012), describes a method for associating an unknown biological specimen with a family, for example, using a modified Elston Stewart algorithm. For example, the described method involves comparing a victim's DNA profile (an unknown specimen having been gathered, for example, from a disaster site), using one or more technologies to all available DNA profiles of selected family members and a pedigree that describes the relationship among the family members. U.S. Pat. No. 8,301,392 issued Oct. 30, 2012 of present inventor Dr. J. Douglas Birdwell et al., and corresponding to priority application U.S. Ser. No. 12/684,539 filed Jan. 8, 2010, (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,775,097 issued Jul. 8, 2015) describes an automated decision support algorithm for selecting family members of a missing person to type of available family members. U. S. Published Patent Application 2012/0148115 published Jun. 14, 2012 corresponding to priority application U.S. Ser. No. 13/403,505 filed Feb. 23, 2012 of present inventor Dr. J. Douglas Birdwell et al., (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,235,733 issued Jan. 12, 2016), describes mobile biometrics information collection and identification via a mobile telecommunications device providing iris scanning, fingerprint identification and other biometrics data collection features such that an identification of an individual and retrieval of that individual's data from a database may be obtained.
At a disaster, accident or crime site, a forensic data specialist may uncover and mark specimens taken from one or more individuals, bag the results together with completing a form identifying the sample(s) collected, and run or submit to be run, for example, individual profile tests to obtain selected DNA profiles. Various DNA technologies can be used including, but not limited to including, for example, STR (short tandem repeat), Y-STR (STR from the Y chromosome), SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms), genetic sequence data and mass spectra. An assigned identifier, which may be encoded as a bar code that can be affixed to the sample collection bags or paperwork, may be used to correctly associate samples or other evidence with other samples or data. For example, a disaster or crime scene may have a number of unknown persons or “missing” persons for which samples may be typed and data collected. Presently, the collected data are physically returned or transmitted to a central location where software may be run to resolve a suspected DNA mixture, for example, per U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,162,372; 7,672,789; 7,860,661 or 8,140,271. In particular, the University of Tennessee has offered mixture deconvolution to police and fire and rescue organizations. This software may be utilized at a fixed location or adapted for use on portable intelligent communication devices without requiring centralized or “cloud” resources. Peak fitting algorithms analyze two dimensional graphic data representing DNA profile peaks and perform allele peak fitting and attribute extraction, for example, per U.S. Pat. No. 8,645,073 issued Feb. 4, 2014. An automated expert system also exists for performing automated expert analysis, for example, per U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,640,223; 7,624,087; 7,664,719; 7,840,519 or 7,945,526. U.S. Pat. No. 8,271,201 issued Sep. 18, 2012, as alluded to above, describes associating an unknown biological specimen with a family pedigree. U.S. Pat. No. 8,301,392 issued Oct. 30, 2012 describes an automated decision support tool for selecting family members of a family pedigree when, for example, one or more parents are unavailable for typing.
There remains a need in the art for mobile telecommunications apparatus and a method for on-site collection of DNA profile data and other forensic data such that a match may be performed locally or remotely to candidate individuals, for example, of a family pedigree or a criminal database or the like so that relatively instantaneous identification may be performed locally or transmitted to the forensic site. There is thus a need to be able to perform automated decision support for selecting available family members to type, to identify disaster victims on the scene of a disaster or crime or to collect and upload DNA profiles of family members available for typing, to fit DNA allele peaks, to perform missing persons kinship analysis, to perform DNA mixture analysis and to perform automated expert analysis locally or remotely such that results may be received at a forensic site or other location of interest using remote and local software and databases as necessary.